Chrissy Suttles, Beaver County Times November 12, 2021
The Shell Chemicals ethane cracker plant shown under construction Aug. 20, 2020, in Potter Township.
POTTER TWP. — Shell Polymers will partner with a chemical recycling company to pave roads at its petrochemical site with asphalt enhanced with recycled plastic additive.
Shell on Thursday announced plans to pave nearly six miles of site roads and 47,000 square yards of parking lots with the mix at its Beaver County site, which will begin turning natural gas into plastic pellets next year.
Company representatives said the project will “utilize the equivalent of 3 million plastic grocery bags, reducing waste in landfills.”
The partnership with Canada-based GreenMantra Technologies began in March 2020, when crews at the future Potter Township facility laid a test strip with the modified asphalt next to traditional asphalt and monitored it for a year. The test strip’s performance, compared to its partner, prompted leadership to use it more broadly throughout the project.
GreenMantra converts waste plastics such as grocery bags and film into specialty chemicals for use in roofing, paving and other industries. The technology aims to reduce energy use and carbon emissions during asphalt production and installation.
Hilary Mercer, Shell Polymers senior vice president, called the move a “win-win” for the environment and the cracker plant project “by using materials that would otherwise have been plastic waste.”
The company is now working to identify other possible uses for the technology across its other projects.
“We believe there are tremendous opportunities for combining asphalt and polymers to reduce both (carbon) emissions and plastic waste,” Mercer said.” “Governments, industry and the private sector can deploy this technology and deliver environmental benefits that were once unthinkable.”
A furious Trump immediately curtailed CDC officials’ media appearances after agency health expert Dr. Nancy Messonnier warned early last year that the spread of COVID-19 was inevitable, she told the House select subcommittee on the pandemic.
“Our intention was certainly to get the public’s attention,” Messonnier told investigators, but she was later reprimanded for the warning, including by then-Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
The CDC held no news briefings between early March 9 and the end of May last year as the pandemic was building and despite repeated requests from the agency, The Washington Post noted.
Trump appointees also pressured the agency to change its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports to align with the White House’s optimistic messages about COVID-19, health officials said.
In the newly released excerpts of information from White House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, she accused Trump’s controversial White House adviser Scott Atlas of working to cut access to COVID-19 tests last year.
“This was an intent of Scott Atlas when he came to the White House, to change the testing guidance,” Birx said.
Trump frequently complained publicly that U.S. statistics looked bad because too many tests were revealing the nation’s high number of cases. Stopping tests was his solution to minimizing the appearance of a problem.
Birx said that Atlas triggered changes to CDC testing recommendations two months later that called for excluding people without visible symptoms, even if they had been exposed to infected people.
“This document resulted in less testing and … less aggressive testing of those without symptoms that I believed were the primary reason for the early community spread,” Birx told investigators.
In information from Birx released by the subcommittee last month, Birx said she believes the COVID-19 death toll could have been cut as much as 40% with better decisions by the Trump White House.
Trump himself admitted to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward that he knew COVID was “deadly stuff,” but that he deliberately downplayed the risk to the public.
“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told Woodward, the journalist reported in his book “Rage.” “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”
In February 2020 Trump said there were only 15 cases of COVID-19 in the nation, and that it would soon be “close to zero.” He also said that “like a miracle” the virus would “disappear,” and congratulated himself on doing a “pretty good job.”
Man Arrested After Allegedly Making Death Threat To GOP Lawmaker Over Infrastructure Vote
Mary Papenfuss November 12, 2021
A man from Long Island, New York, was arrested Wednesday after allegedly threatening a Republican lawmaker who voted for the Biden administration’s infrastructure package.
Kenneth Gasper, 64, was arrested following a telephoned death threat against Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), Nassau County police said in a statement.
Gasper “was extremely upset over an infrastructure bill” and vowed, “If I see that mother (expletive) in the street, I’m going to kill him,” according to the criminal complaint against him.
The call, made Monday, came just days after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted that Garbarino and 12 other Republicans were “traitors” for voting for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The tweet also included the phone numbers for those GOP lawmakers.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) received a death threat this week over his vote for the infrastructure bill. (Photo: Bill Clark via Getty Images)
“It’s amazing people want to kill me over paving roads and clean water,” Garbarino told BuzzFeed News.
He has also emphasized the seriousness of the issue, and said that “misinformation” spread by his House colleagues and conservative pundits has put lawmakers at risk.
“There are members of Congress that are fundraising off of their misinformation and attacking us, and it’s causing us to get death threats,” he told The New York Post.
Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said at a press conference Friday that his department has “zero tolerance for this type of behavior for any of our residents,” referring to the death threat, The Long Island Press reported.
“In the world that we’re living in today, the climate that is out there, these threats we take very seriously,” he added.
Gasper was charged with second-degree aggravated harassment and was arraigned Thursday. He pleaded not guilty, was released on his own recognizance, and was ordered to stay away from Garbarino and the aide who answered his phone.
His attorney, John Rey, has denied that Gasper made the threat.
“Ken is an ordinary American who was offended when politician Garbarino became an overnight Democrat and voted, in Ken’s view, to wreck our country,” Ray said, according to a local ABC News affiliate.
The chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, J. Thomas Manger, told The Associated Press in September that his department was seeing thousands more threats against lawmakers than just a few years ago. He predicted that authorities would respond to close to 9,000 threats against members of Congress this year.
Meanwhile, Steve Bannon Is Reminding Everyone That the Right Is Very Much Trying to Destroy Democracy
Peter Wade November 12, 2021
Steve Bannon. – Credit: PYMCA/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Steve Bannon was criminally charged on Friday for defying a subpoena issued by the House committee investigating Jan. 6. The charges were announced not long after Bannon very emphatically reminded listeners of his War Room podcast that the he and the right are trying to do away with democracy by “taking over elections” and overturning Trump’s loss last November.
“We’re taking action. We’re taking over school boards. We’re taking over the Republican Party with the precinct committee strategy. We’re taking over all the elections,” Bannon said.
“Suck on this!” he added. “Ninety-five percent of the ballots in Virginia were occupied with election officials and poll watchers and that is a principle reason we secured the election of Youngkin. They know it. They’re there to have a free and fair count. We’re going to continue that and get to the bottom of 3 November and we’re going to decertify the electors and you’re going to have a constitutional crisis.
Don’t worry, though. Bannon took the time to comfort his listeners. Everything will be totally fine, he said. Just trust him as he walks the nation off a constitutional cliff. “But you know what?” Bannon said. “We’re a big and tough country, and we can handle that, we’ll be able to handle that. We’ll get through that.”
Bannon is currently engaged in a battle with the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. He has refused to comply with a subpoena from the committee, following Trump’s direction to claim his communications with the president were protected by executive privilege. It’s an odd claim considering that Bannon was not working in the federal government at the time of the insurrection and that Trump is no longer being president. Bannon even failed to show up to give testimony before the committee in response to the subpoena.
Bannon’s refusal led the committee to hold him in contempt. The House of Representatives then voted to approve the measure, sending it to the Justice Department. On Friday, the Justice Department announced that a federal grand jury indicted him on two counts of contempt of Congress.
The Hatch Act, the law Trump deputies are said to have broken, requires government employees to work for the public interest, not partisan campaigns
Matthew May, Senior Associate, Boise State University – November 12, 2021
At least 13 former Trump administration officials, including Jared Kushner and Kayleigh McEnany, pictured here, violated the Hatch Act, according to a new federal investigation released Nov. 9, 2021. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
The officials, including then-acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “chose to use their official authority not for the legitimate functions of the government, but to promote the reelection of President Trump in violation of the law.”
The Trump administration members were not the first federal employees to have crossed the line into prohibited political advocacy. Over the past few decades, government employees have been documented violating the Hatch Act in their offices, at meetings and in memos. And in a world awash in social media, it has become much easier for people to share their views about politics digitally.
But government employees work for the people of the United States. Paid with the tax dollars of Democrats and Republicans, they are supposed to work in the public interest, not use the power of the federal government to pursue partisan political causes.
Public dollars, public mission
The ideal of public employees as politically neutral is, at its core, driven by accountability.
For many government employees, the appearance of political impartiality is an overriding principle that governs their professional lives. Upholding this principle can even cause them to sacrifice their own electoral influence outside of the office.
Where is the line between professional standards and political speech?
Public servants, the argument goes, should be neutral and concerned only with implementing public policy that is decided by elected officials. This principle has driven the field of public administration for more than 100 years.
Passed in 1939, the Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from running for partisan office, encouraging subordinates to engage in political activity, soliciting political contributions or engaging in political activity while on duty. It does not prohibit affiliating with a political party, discussing politics or attending fundraisers.
The Hatch Act generally only applies to federal employees. It does not apply to the president, vice president or Cabinet appointments. It can also cover state and local government employees, if their work is at least partially funded by federal dollars. Several states, such as Minnesota, North Carolina and Ohio, have additional laws that can further restrict the political activity of public employees, even if their positions aren’t federally funded.
During the early years of the United States, the federal government operated under a system known as “patronage.”
Under that system, a newly elected president could replace federal employees with a person of their choosing. Often, they chose only from among their supporters, campaign workers and friends. This was especially true if the presidency changed political parties.
Woodrow Wilson wrote an important essay on government employee neutrality before he became president. Library of Congress
The public bureaucracy was constantly changing, and few officials were around long enough to develop institutional memory. In addition, patronage led to the appointment of people who were not qualified for the positions they got, leaving the government inefficient and the public dissatisfied.
President Woodrow Wilson, prior to his presidency, and Frank Goodnow, writing separately at the end of the 19th century, first articulated the theory that there should be a wall between elected officials who set public policy and the professional staff charged with implementing that policy.
A professional class of government employees was not the tradition of the United States at that time, and the public had to be convinced of its virtue. Wilson’s essay tried to help the wider population understand why civil service reforms were necessary.
There was another event that also helped move government employment from patronage to professionalism. In 1881, a man who felt he had been unfairly passed over for a patronage job shot and killed President James Garfield. This assassination helped highlight the problems of the patronage system and led to the passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883. That legislation instituted a merit-based civil service system that remains largely in place today.
Under the system instituted in 1883, only the top levels of federal agencies can be replaced by patronage appointments – friends, supporters and allies of the new administration. The remaining levels of rank-and-file staff are expected to be nonpartisan professionals. In many respects, the Hatch Act can be seen as an outgrowth of this ideal.
A ‘fanciful’ distinction
The boundary between politics and civil service employees is not necessarily easy to see or maintain. Scholars have wrestled with whether government employees, charged with implementing vague public policy, can really be separated entirely from political concerns.
In fact, some scholars have rejected the separation as fanciful. In an important debate between preeminent public administration scholar Dwight Waldo and Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert Simon, Waldo argued that when some decision-making is left to administrators, an administrator’s own politics will influence those decisions. In short, public employees are not actually neutral. Simon, on the other hand, argued that efficient government required that administrative decisions should emphasize objective facts and not be influenced by a public employee’s personal values.
For over a century, public employees have generally subscribed to an ethos that theirs is a professional role separated from the daily political grind. In the modern era, it takes far more discipline to maintain that separation. And it does not appear to be getting any easier.
In 2015, the Hatch Act was clarified to prohibit federal employees from, among other things, liking or retweeting a political candidate while on the job, even during break time. Some in sensitive positions, like law enforcement or intelligence, are even prohibited from doing so during their off-hours.
Despite that attempt at clarity, in today’s hyperpartisan climate, social media and 24-hour connectivity have helped blur the line between a public employee acting in their official capacity and their private life.
The Trump administration officials’ violations help remind us that the line between political activity and professional neutrality still exists for federal employees. And in this increasingly connected world, the opportunities to fall short are plentiful.
This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 23, 2018.
Letters to the Editor: Why Trump isn’t on trial yet, and what that says about justice in America
November 12, 2021
Former President Trump speaks at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., on July 7. (Associated Press)
To the editor: In a way, the most interesting thing about how the media discuss the future for Republicans and former President Trump (including Jonah Goldberg’s column on the recent Virginia election) is a crucial underlying assumption: There is no justice or accounting for the powerful in America.
A primary example is that no explanation is even attempted for why the ex-president is not on trial or in prison.
With all his apparent crimes — ranging from tax evasion to obstruction of justice to attempted electoral fraud — he appears to be immune from prosecution from the federal government as well as from state authorities, particularly in Georgia and New York.
The near-silence of the media on this testifies to the corruption of justice in this country.
Roger Carasso, Santa Fe, N.M.
..
To the editor: Weighing in on the future of the GOP, Goldberg claims like many Republican politicians that one of the lessons of last week’s elections is that Republicans can win back suburban and independent voters by talking about real issues rather than Trump.
For those of us who followed the Virginia race, we learned that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe had at least six pages on his website detailing his plans for Virginians. Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin, the Republican winner, stated next to nothing on his website beyond his “educational” goals of giving control of schools to parents and keeping critical race theory out of the classroom.
In reality, critical race theory is not currently being taught to Virginia students. Those of us with an actual education can see the history of Richard Nixon’s Southern strategy being replayed.
I enjoy reading opinion pieces in the newspaper. Sometimes I agree with the writer; other times I disagree. Whatever, I think it’s good to understand the varying viewpoints of the day.
One of my favorite columnists is Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post. He definitely leans to the left, but more importantly, he leans heavily on common sense. Last month, he nailed it with a column about the dumbing down of America, only Robinson framed it into a more blistering description. He expressed his personal fear the country is quickly diving into “lip-blubbering, self-destructive idiocy. How did we become, in such alarming measure, so dumb?”
He cited what he believes are clear examples of a dumb America, including Congress too often flirting with economic chaos and disaster, all in the name of politics, to the large segment of citizens who deny science and ignore some 700,000 deaths to preach against the evils of COVID-19 vaccinations.
Evidently, some folks on the loonier side of reality read Robinson’s column and set out to give him even more and stronger proof we as a country are going bonkers. I’m referring to two recent news stories, one involving QAnon believers waiting for the dead to return in Dallas and the other, an attack by right-wing Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas against Sesame Street’s Big Bird. Yes, you read that last part correctly; you can’t make things like this up.
First, the QAnon tale. I will tell you truthfully, even though I’ve heard the term “QAnon” many times on the news, I’m still a bit puzzled by what it is. Is it a group? An individual? I turned to Wikipedia for its take, which describes QAnon as “a far-right conspiracy theory and movement centered on false claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals, known by the name ‘Q,’ that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles operate a global child sex trafficking ring that conspired against former president Donald Trump during his term in office. QAnon has been described as a cult.
“One shared belief among QAnon members is that Trump was planning a massive sting operation on the cabal, with mass arrests of thousands of cabal members to take place on a day known as The Storm.’ QAnon supporters have baselessly accused many Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking government officials of being members of the cabal.”
If you are still scratching your head, still wondering what QAnon is, sorry, I can’t offer more understanding than the Wikipedia explanation. What happened in recent days in Dallas, Texas, has truly skewed my viewpoint of the mysterious group far into the Twilight Zone.
A group of QAnon disciples gathered in Dallas to await the promised Nov. 2 return of John F. Kennedy Jr.
QAnon had promised its many followers that JFK Jr. was returning to Dealey Plaza, where his father, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated, to declare Donald Trump president of the United States. Not only that, Trump intended to name JFK Jr. as his vice president.
There was a minor problem with QAnon’s visions. JFK Jr. died in a plane accident in 1999. As such, he indeed was a no-show at the Dallas rally.
But visions and conspiracy theories don’t die easily. Followers who expressed mild disappointment that JFK Jr. never appeared were now clinging to a new vision by their leadership, that Junior would suddenly make his appearance on July 4.
Other disciples took a more – dare I say it – outlandish path. They embraced the theory that Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones is actually JFK Jr. That made good sense to those embracing this theory. After all, Richards and the Stones were in Dallas for a concert on that very date. It might be just too much of a coincidence to ignore, don’t you think? Well …
So much for the Kennedys, Rolling Stones and QAnon. Let’s take flight to the controversy Ted Cruz hatched up over Big Bird, that sweet, loveable, canary-yellow critter from Sesame Street.
Big Bird and his Sesame Street pals Elmo and Oscar the Grouch have been part of an outreach effort that included a town hall on CNN on Saturday morning — the Muppets’ sixth such special since the pandemic began. Afterward, Big Bird tweeted: “I got the COVID-19 vaccine today! My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy.”
That may have assured Big Bird’s young followers, but it lit a fire under Ted Cruz. The Republican Texas senator called it “government propaganda for your 5-year-old.” The “government propaganda” claim apparently was a reference to Sesame Workshop receiving a small amount of its budget in the form of government grants.
But gee whiz, doesn’t the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, both publicly funded agencies, rely almost exclusively on government funding? And, aren’t both groups highly involved in promoting vaccinations against COVID-19? For the sake of goodness, Senator, give the beloved Big Bird a break. Shame on you!
No matter how ridiculous Cruz’s attack seems, it nonetheless received support from the right-wing media. Said Fox News host Lisa Boothe: “Brainwashing children who are not at risk from COVID. Twisted.”
And this from Seattle conservative radio host Jason Rantz: “Big Bird is spreading misinformation. He didn’t get the vaccine. He’s lying.”
To which, I respond by repeating Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson’s words: “How did we become, in such alarming measure, so dumb?”
Column: Could Biden’s infrastructure bill fix real problems instead of fake ones? Yes! It’s an outrage!
Rex Huppke, Chicago Tribune November 9, 2021
For President Joe Biden to get his outrageous, socialist, communist, Maoist (and probably Satanist) $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed, he had to pull off the most devious act of his administration: tricking 13 Republicans in the U.S. House into governing.
I don’t know if he used big-tech-facilitated mind control or some form of sleepy witchcraft, but it happened. Biden distracted this same-sex-wedding-cake baker’s dozen of GOP lawmakers from the party’s sworn mission of being outraged about things that don’t exist while offering no policies to address the things that do.
You should be enraged over this deception, and also very, very frightened about whatever Tucker Carlson is currently telling you to fear. (Remember, if you allow your brain to stop being terrified of unseen boogeymen even for a moment, it might start working, and that’s tyranny.)
So let’s take a closer look at what this nefarious new infrastructure bill will NOT do for America.
Will it audit the results of the 2020 presidential election in every state in the country and then reinstate President Donald Trump so he can pass a similar infrastructure bill that we Republicans will praise as the greatest legislation in human history? No.
Will it eradicate “the woke mob” and “wokeness” in general while allowing us to never actually define what either of those terms mean? Of course not.
Will it keep Antifa super soldiers from patrolling the Christmas decoration aisles at Walmart and telling me at gunpoint that I have to say “Happy Holidays”? Again, no.
Instead, this liberal plan — supported by radical left-wing organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers — will invest money in things Americans need, when we should be investing money in things Americans have been told to fear.
For example, the infrastructure bill puts $110 billion toward fixing the country’s aging roads, highways and bridges. Ridiculous! Real Americans embrace the possibility they might fall to their deaths when driving across a bridge. Bridge safety is for effete Europeans.
And will our modernized roads and highways make it easier for large migrant caravans to go from school to school teaching our children about Critical Race Theory? Yes, probably. You should feel very worried about that.
The bill also provides $65 billion to improve the nation’s power grid, which is absurd. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz showed Americans how to patriotically handle power grid issues earlier this year when a winter storm caused massive outages in Texas. He bravely gathered his family and flew to Cancun, Mexico.
Biden’s America-destroying infrastructure plan will give another $65 billion to improve internet service in rural areas, a clear effort to poison MAGA country with knowledge. And it will throw money at improving airports, upgrading public transportation and replacing lead water pipes, all of which sounds highly suspicious. What about our freedom to drink lead-contaminated water while waiting in a broken-down bus on our way to the airport for a flight that has been delayed?
Perhaps most galling of all is that Biden — who is clearly senile and incapable of stringing thoughts together and also the most diabolical politician to ever live — keeps calling the infrastructure bill “bipartisan,” just because members of both parties debated, gave concessions and then voted for it. As if that’s what “bipartisan” means.
Here’s Republican Sen. Mitt Romney traitorously tweeting about the bill on Monday: “Utah has over 2,000 miles of roads in poor condition. Commute times are up and road conditions are costing Utah drivers money. Our bipartisan infrastructure bill authorizes roughly $3 billion in highway funding for Utah to construct, rebuild, and maintain our roads and highways.”
What kind of Republican tries to improve the living conditions of his constituents?
Mitch McConnell, clearly hypnotized, continued to tarnish the GOP brand, saying Monday: “I was delighted that the House finally found a way to pass the infrastructure bill last week.”
And after the bill was passed in the House, Republican Rep. John Katko, a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and CWAG (Conservative Who Accidentally Governed), tweeted that it was “a historic day,” adding: “The bill will make a once in a generation investment in our nation’s physical infrastructure including our roads and bridges, ports and waterways, broadband networks, electrical grid, clean water systems, and airports.”
You know what’s missing from that list, Mr. So-Called Republican? Anything having to do with condemning Big Bird for recently bragging about getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
And what about the War on Christmas? Do these Republicans in Congress not appreciate the seriousness of this battle for the soul of Starbucks holiday cups?
This is not a time to spend money fixing the problems Americans can see with their eyes. It’s a time to fearmonger the problems Americans hear with their ears because we keep telling the same scary stories over and over.
Shame on Joe Biden for luring these once-good Republicans into his web and convincing them to do what they were elected to do.
I and my fellow conservatives will not stand idly by and allow this sort of governing, mixed with a glimmer of bipartisanship, to continue.
We must stand strong in the face of productive policy ideas and stick to our All-American style of governing via scary internet meme. It’s what the founders wanted before they were canceled by woke social justice warriors who sent their children to liberal re-education camps and put microchips in their mutton.
More than 300 polluted lakes and rivers added to Minnesota’s impaired waters list
Greg Stanley, Star Tribune November 8, 2021
Another 305 streams, lakes and rivers in Minnesota have become too polluted to meet federal water standards, and will be added to the state’s impaired waters list.
The list, updated Monday by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), now includes about 3,000 bodies of water with more than 6,000 specific impairments.
“These are streams with degraded habitat or with too much sediment for fish to find food,” said Peter Tester, deputy commissioner of the MPCA. “Many have high bacteria levels that make them unsafe to swim. Many have too many nutrients that grow algae. Some have more than one impairment. That’s too many.”
Every lake or stretch of river on the list tested too high for at least one pollutant that can harm swimmers, kill off aquatic life or make fish unsafe to eat. The most common problems in recent years have sprouted from pollutants that have many sources, including some from miles away or even from out of state, which makes them especially daunting to regulate.
Much of the Le Sueur River in south central Minnesota, for example, was added to the list because its fish now have too much mercury to be safe to regularly eat. The vast majority of that mercury has been building up slowly over time from air pollution originating outside of Minnesota, according to the MCPA. The mercury is carried in by the wind and lands either directly into Minnesota’s rivers and lakes through dust particles, or washes into the water through erosion and runoff after collecting on the soil.
For the first time, the state added rivers and lakes that were impaired by two pollutants that are quickly becoming more of a health and environmental concern: sulfate and chemicals known as PFAS.
Sulfate pollution is high enough in 35 bodies of water, primarily in north eastern Minnesota, to prevent wild rice from growing, according to the updated list.
That pollution is likely coming from mines and wastewater treatment plants, said Catherine Neuschler, who manages water assessment for the MPCA.
The agency is coming up with plans to reduce sulfate contamination in those lakes and streams, which could include new monitoring requirements from companies or cities that may be contributing, she said.
Polyfluoroalkyl substances — also called PFAS and PFOS — are a wide-range of chemicals that don’t break down in the environment. They can accumulate in blood and have been linked to certain types of cancer and other health risks.
At least some PFAS pollution is now in virtually every water body in the state. But it has built up in high enough numbers to cause special concern in 15 lakes and streams, all of which are downstream from known contamination or disposal sites, said Miranda Nichols, coordinator of the impaired water list.
“We looked at water across the state and found low levels of PFAS in just about all of them,” she said.
The majority of PFAS impairments are near the Twin Cities, including the St. Croix River. Three lakes and rivers downstream from the Duluth International Airport were also contaminated.
Phosphorus and other nutrients that are carried into streams from agricultural runoff and sediment from erosion continue to be problems throughout much of the state. More than 50 lakes and streams, including parts of the Chippewa and Buffalo rivers, were added to the list because of nutrient pollution, which can suck oxygen out of a water and spawn toxic algae blooms that kill dogs and make swimmers sick.
The majority of the additions to the list this year were made because the stretches of water were simply polluted to the point where fish and other aquatic life died off.
“That has been true for the last ten years,” Nichols said.
Bees, sheep, crops: Solar developers tout multiple benefits
John Flesher, Tammy Webber November 4, 2021
Climate Solar Restoring the Landscape
Sheep graze at a solar farm at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Friday, Sept. 24, 2021. As panels spread across the landscape, the grounds around them can be used for native grasses and flowers that attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Some solar farms are being used to graze sheep.(AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth)
Solar farms surround trees at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Friday, Sept. 24, 2021. As panels spread across the landscape, the grounds around them can be used for native grasses and flowers that attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Some solar farms are being used to graze sheep. (AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth)
Cornell University researcher Niko Kochendoerfer stands among sheep grazing at a solar farm at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Friday, Sept. 24, 2021. Kochendoerfer says initial data from her three-year study shows light grazing produces abundant bees and wildflowers, while keeping plants from shading panels. Some rare bee species are turning up. (AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth)
Crops grow under solar panels at Jack’s Solar Garden on Sept. 14, 2021, in Longmont, Colo. As panels spread across the landscape, the grounds around them can be used for native grasses and flowers that attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies.(AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)
Sheep graze and rest at a solar farm at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Friday, Sept. 24, 2021. As panels spread across the landscape, the grounds around them can be used for native grasses and flowers that attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Some solar farms are being used to graze sheep. (AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth)
MONTICELLO, Minnesota (AP) — Silflower was among native plants that blanketed the vast North American prairie until settlers developed farms and cities. Nowadays confined largely to roadsides and ditches, the long-stemmed cousin of the sunflower may be poised for a comeback, thanks to solar energy.
Researchers are growing silflower at nine solar installations in the Minneapolis area, testing its potential as an oilseed crop. The deep-rooted perennial also offers forage for livestock and desperately needed habitat for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
“We need a lot of plots spaced pretty far apart to measure silflower’s effects on pollinators,” said crop scientist Ebony Murrell of The Land Institute, a research nonprofit. “The solar industry is interested in restoring pollinator habitat. This seemed to be a good partnership.”- ADVERTISEMENT -https://s.yimg.com/rq/darla/4-10-1/html/r-sf-flx.html
Solar is a renewable energy source that can help wean the world off fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases. But it also could benefit the environment and economy in ways not as well known.
As the industry grows, solar arrays will sprawl across millions of acres (hectares) — wasting farmland, critics say. But advocates see opportunities to diversify crop production and boost landowner income, while repairing ecological damage to ground plowed under or paved over.
“There’s lots of spaces where solar could be integrated with really innovative uses of land,” said Brendan O’Neill, a University of Michigan environmental scientist who’s monitoring how planting at a new 1,752-panel facility in Cadillac, Michigan, stores carbon.
Elsewhere, solar installations host sheep that reduce need for mowing. And researchers are experimenting with crop growing beneath solar panels, while examining other potential upsides: preventing soil erosion, and conserving and cleansing water.
The U.S. has about 2,500 solar operations on the electric grid, most generating one to five megawatts, according to the Energy Information Administration. A five-megawatt facility needs around 40 acres (16 hectares). While some occupy former industrial sites, larger installations often take space once used for row crops.
Depending on how quickly the nation switches to renewable electricity, up to 10 million acres (4 million hectares) could be needed for solar by 2050 — more than the combined area of Massachusetts and New Jersey, an analysis by Argonne found.
Solar developers and researchers hope projects with multiple land uses will ease pushback from rural residents who don’t want farmland taken out of production or consider solar panels a blight.
“We need healthy agricultural communities, but we also need renewable energy,” said Jordan Macknick, the renewable energy lab’s lead analyst for InSPIRE.
BUZZ AND FUZZ
At Cascadilla Community Solar Farm in upstate New York, sheep munch grasses among solar panels while bees and butterflies collect pollen from native flowers.
Cornell University researcher Niko Kochendoerfer says initial data from her three-year study shows light grazing produces abundant bees and wildflowers, while keeping plants from shading panels. Some rare bee species are turning up.
Farmers get $300 to $550 per acre yearly to graze sheep at solar sites, increasing farm income while sparing them the cost of renting or buying pasture, said Kochendoerfer, who owns about 400 sheep with her fiance, Lewis Fox. Grazing is less expensive than traditional site management, she said.
Fox has sheep at solar sites from southern Pennsylvania to Vermont.
“Certain times of the year … the sites will be like a butterfly house in a zoo — there’s just butterflies everywhere,” he said.
Sheep are feeding at solar installations in more than 20 states, said Lexie Hain, director of the American Solar Grazing Association and Fox’s business partner. It’s also happening in the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe, Uruguay and Australia.
VEGETABLES IN SOLAR SHADE
In Longmont, Colorado, Jack’s Solar Farm offers another example of solar meeting agriculture. Instead of wheat and hay as before, the farm’s 24 acres (about 10 hectares) host 3,276 panels, generating enough power for about 300 homes. Beneath them grow tomatoes, squash, kale and green beans.
Researchers are comparing vegetables grown under panels six or eight feet (about two to 2½ meters) off the ground with others in open sunlight. Results were mixed during the recently concluded initial season but shaded plants appeared to have a longer growing season.
“We don’t have to leave the soils underneath our solar panels across our country denuded or just left to weeds,” owner Byron Kominek said. “Elevating the panels a little bit more provides agricultural jobs as well as an opportunity to do more with the land.”
“Agrivoltaics,” or growing produce beneath panels, is especially promising in hot, arid regions, say experts who have planted cherry tomatoes and peppers beneath them at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 laboratory.
Those crops usually match or exceed ones in a traditional environment, according to the team’s findings. With less direct sunlight, they lose less water to evaporation, reducing irrigation demand. And the plants keep panels cooler, boosting performance.
How widely such farming could happen remains to be seen, said Greg Barron-Gafford, a biogeography professor at Arizona. Large-scale agriculture requires mechanized planting and harvesting that might be difficult beneath panels.
“But the vast majority of farms across the country are small farms that are breaking even or losing money,” Barron-Gafford said, adding that leasing land for solar energy while still growing food could generate profits.
POLLINATOR HABITAT
While commercial prospects for agrivoltaics are unknown, scientists say it’s certain that solar grounds are ideal for native grasses and flowers that draw pollinators, many facing extinction.
A team led by Oregon State University researcher Maggie Graham reported this year that bees and other insects visit plants partly or totally shaded by panels. They also may pollinate crops in nearby fields, boosting yields.
Compared to farmland, solar sites planted with pollinator-friendly native vegetation would provide a three-fold increase in habitat quality for pollinators, a recent Argonne study concluded. Pollinator-friendly sites would have two-thirds more carbon storage potential, nearly one-fifth less water runoff and 95% less soil erosion than traditionally cultivated land, it said.
Some solar developers are resisting because plants for pollinators are more expensive than lawn used at many sites. But over time that’s offset by lower maintenance, said Reed Richerson, chief operating officer of U.S. Solar, a Minneapolis developer.
The popularity of saving bees and butterflies is attracting the likes of Walmart, which buys power from dozens of pollinator-friendly U.S. Solar installations.
More than a dozen states have standards or guidelines based on qualities such as ground cover density and diversity, and the amount of land involved.
“We wanted to avoid greenwashing — planting a little patch of clover and petunias and saying, ‘There’s my pollinator-friendly contribution,’” said Michael Noble, director of Minnesota-based Fresh Energy, which helped develop the standards.
Many more nature-based solar gardens are needed as global warming and species losses accelerate, said Rob Davis, spokesman for Connexus Energy.
Three years ago, he said, one of the Minnesota co-op’s solar projects risked rejection by a suburban planning commission until supporters brought up the pollinator benefits and their visual appeal.
“The technology of solar energy is unfamiliar and foreign,” Davis said. “But everyone understands what a meadow is.”
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Tammy Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan. AP video journalist Brittany Peterson contributed from Longmont, Colorado.
